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This week Shawn, Julian, Cory and Elysium make their E3 predictions now so you can tell just how right or wrong they are in real time!

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I picked up inFamous and Dead Nation as well. I'd actually played and beaten inFamous before on rental, but liked it so much that I'm playing through it a second time. Great game, for sure.

I'd liken Dead Nation more to Alien Swarm. You can "place your bullets" rather than firing them willy nilly if you want, though if you use something like an SMG, it can seem more like a twin stick shooter. Those bullets run out, though, so you have to pay attention to your ammo (your stock gun has unlimited ammo, and is upgradeable).

I have no problem playing mediocre games sometimes, but usually try to wait to pick those up months or years after release when I can get them much cheaper. I do this because I'm an unrepentant PS3 trophy whore; although a lazy, attention-span-deprived, and somewhat time-pressed one who prefers to get the low hanging bronze "you completed the tutorial" trophies of quick single runs through multiple titles than spend a bajillion hours hunting down every goddamn hidden treasure from a single game.

Or as I prefer to term it: a connoisseur of shallowly cheap achievements from deeply cheap games...

I've actually started enjoying my gaming (and TV, books and movies) more since I've stopped caring about the quality of whatever I'm playing. If it looks fun, I start playing. If it gets boring, I stop.

For instance, yesterday I read Robopocalypse. Was it the greatest thing I've ever read? I honestly don't care, it was great. I had a great time reading it. If I tried to dissect it before purchasing, or even afterwards, it will become less enjoyable. It's a pretty good book and I had a good time, I'm okay with not going deeper than that.

I feel like I have a pretty good innate sense of whether or not a piece has depth. If it has depth, I don't mind analyzing and gushing over it. If it doesn't though, I've learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Why pick apart something and decry it as "mediocre" if you're enjoying it? Just enjoy it! If you're not enjoying it, why bother?

The need to comment on something can sometimes ruin what we're commenting about in the first place.

"But when the game, the second-person engine, starts again, it tells you about yourself ... like Scheherazade and her king mixed up together in one, trying over and over to tell yourself your own story, and get it right" - You by Austin Grossman

I've actually started enjoying my gaming (and TV, books and movies) more since I've stopped caring about the quality of whatever I'm playing. If it looks fun, I start playing. If it gets boring, I stop.

I'm pretty much the same way. If I'm enjoying it, I'll keep on playing. If not, I'll stop.

That's pretty much why my pile is the size of the world, and why I'm still playing WoW...

Valve wrote:

“Also, the game will be even better,” they added, missing an historic opportunity to create the first product delay press release to mention that a product is being delayed to make it worse.

Anybody planning on buying The Witcher 2, I highly recommend buying it on GoG over Steam.
This isn't bias, I bought it on Steam and regret it. On GoG you get no DRM, more bonus content, easier to manage bonus content, GWJ support, and better patches (assuming they still don't fix the steam patch size issue).
And make sure you use the GWJ link http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/?pp=...

Regarding The Witcher 2 and Fedora's comment, I thought a lot of that was fixed in the 9GB patch for Steam to make it on par with GOG. Either way, I suggest people just buy the game anywhere, but it's really friggin' good.

Regarding The Witcher 2 and Fedora's comment, I thought a lot of that was fixed in the 9GB patch for Steam to make it on par with GOG. Either way, I suggest people just buy the game anywhere, but it's really friggin' good.

I mean the bonus content, not game content. The actual in game content is exactly the same for both version.
The GoG version gets you more bonus videos (if you're into that sort of thing) and you can pick and choose what things you want to download instead of having to download it all together in that weird steam tools thing.

The 9 gig patch was actually a 20 meg or so patch but due to Steam's file system you had to redownload a file that contained like 80% of the entire game's files. The second update had the same issue.

I'm pretty sure the emailer Kevin had a thread in the forum a few months ago talking about his love of board gaming combined with the bitter pill of his OCD. Glad to hear he's getting help.

I think Elysium's suggestion of a copy of a game for home and a copy for out may be the best. Then the 'out' games can be packed in a plastic chest or something with minimal cleaning. I don't know much about card sleeves, would using clear tape work to seal the cards in? I don't see that cleaning the inside of a sleeve would be feasible.

But not being someone who suffers from a psychological disorder (that I know of, don't think being glib and snarky counts) I would be a little concerned about reinforcing behaviour that one is getting help with.

I would volunteer to do a Witcher 2 spoiler section. Could be fun. I just have a headset mic though, not sure what quality would be like. And I have an odd accent.

...new gaming gear from Nyko. Zoom for Kinect is a set of clip-on specs that lets you get 40 percent closer to the sensor bar with no loss of function -- so the studio apartment set can get in on the gesture gaming craze.

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." ― H.L. Mencken

With regards to Shawn and Cory losing $60 to Hunted: The Demon's Forge. I don't think there is a game that I've spent money on in recent history without watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look first. Typically I can get a feel for the game and whether I want to drop any money on it.

Almost everybody has a bluetooth headset and a smartphone that can record audio these days. One strategy for recording a large batch of people playing a game is having each one record their audio with their phone. Everybody wearing a headset isn't too obtrusive.

It would be a beast to edit them all together, but doable.

I'm not saying you should do this. I am just an engineer, offering solutions to challenges.

Almost everybody has a bluetooth headset and a smartphone that can record audio these days. One strategy for recording a large batch of people playing a game is having each one record their audio with their phone. Everybody wearing a headset isn't too obtrusive.

It would be a beast to edit them all together, but doable.

I'm not saying you should do this. I am just an engineer, offering solutions to challenges.

Given the sync challenged of putting a 4 man podcast together thats only an hour long, and recorded on professional equipment, I can't IMAGINE trying to sync 5-6 tracks form different phones together and get anything remotely usable.

@rabbit Try, if you haven't yet, Beat Sketcher on the PS3-Move, the demo is awesome, I still play just with the demo some days with my kid, it's painting with music in the backgorund and taking pictures.

Hasbro may have bought the name Avalon Hill 10 years ago but to borrow a phrase, I knew Avalon Hill. It was a friend of Mine. You sir are no Avalon Hill.

The only concrete advice I can offer is limit the length of your sessions. On one hand, playing a game in 15 minute segments sucks if it's even possible. On the other hand, if the game is great it beats not playing it or playing it for long periods of time and then feeling awful.

There are a couple other things that have worked for me on occasion. One is to use my peripheral vision: stare into space rather than focusing on the monitor, or focusing on a specific point of the monitor the entire time. I know that isn't practical for most games but it worked for me in Burnout.

It probably is not practical in Dirt 3, but moving in long, straight lines has worked as well.

I have the same aversion to consuming something to cope that the CC cast had so my main strategy is to avoid games which will probably cause me to feel uncomfortable. My plan doesn't always work as I bought Orange Box in a moment of hubris after finishing Bioshock. There are way too many quality games out there to play that it's hard to justify feeling awful to play the nausea-inducing ones.